Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Siemens to focus its water business on automation technology in the future

08.11.2012

Activities for water treatment to be put up for sale

Siemens has decided to reorganize its activities in the water business. The company intends to focus in the future on automation and drive solutions for the control of water applications for municipalities and industry.

The Business Unit known as Siemens Water Technologies, which offers solutions for municipal and industrial water purification and wastewater treatment, is to be sold along with the corresponding service activities. "This business shows only minor synergies with our industrial portfolio, as the skills for water treatment are primarily based on chemical expertise.

Instead of investing into that business, we want to gear our resources toward our core portfolio," said Siegfried Russwurm, member of the Siemens AG Managing Board and CEO of the Industry Sector. Siemens Water Technologies is active predominantly in the North American market and recently underwent a comprehensive restructuring. Strengthening Siemens' core activities is one of the five main action fields in the corporate program "Siemens 2014".

"In the future, we will concentrate our water business on solutions along our core areas of expertise in electrical engineering. These are in the automation and drive technology used to operate waterworks and sewage plants as well as sea water desalination plants," said Anton S. Huber, CEO of the Industry Automation Division at Siemens. "For the business, which is organized in the Water Technologies Business Unit, we are looking for the right buyer with a sustainable growth perspective who is willing to invest in this business and generate more synergies."

The products and services provided by Water Technologies comprise a number of different biological, chemical, and mechanical methods for the treatment of water and wastewater. The bulk of this business is geared to the standards in North America. Beyond that, the rest of the worldwide water market is highly fragmented and dominated by local solutions. The activities of the Business Unit have been put on an economically sound basis in the past 18 months and strategically geared to customers in municipalities and various industrial sectors. A large part of the portfolio is accounted for by business with municipalities with a strong regional bias toward the US and Canada, while a smaller portion comprises the treatment of process water and wastewater from industrial companies. Siemens Water Technologies also operates its own research center in Singapore, which includes a novel and extremely energy-efficient technique for electrochemical desalination of sea water. About 4,500 employees work for Siemens Water Technologies worldwide, of whom 3,000 are located in North America.

Siemens Industry Automation will continue as before to operate the business with solutions for the control, management, and instrumentation of water processes, which is part of the Industrial Automation Systems Business Unit. Essentially, these are solutions based on the Simatic PCS7 process control system and process instruments such as flow, pressure, and level meters. There is also drive technology – for pipelines, pumps, and agitators, for example – that are marketed by the Siemens Drive Technologies Division. This portfolio of products is used by municipal sewage treatment plants and waterworks and by industrial companies in such diverse sectors as automotive, mining, chemicals, electronics manufacturing, oil and gas, food production, and pharmaceuticals.

The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is the world's leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly products and solutions for industrial customers. With end-to-end automation technology and industrial software, solid vertical-market expertise, and technology-based services, the Sector enhances its customers' productivity, efficiency, and flexibility. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies. For more information, visit http://www.siemens.com/industry

The Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany) supports the entire value chain of its industrial customers – from product design to production and services – with an unmatched combination of automation technology, industrial control technology, and industrial software. With its software solutions, the Division can shorten the time-to-market of new products by up to 50 percent. Industry Automation comprises five Business Units: Industrial Automation Systems, Control Components and Systems Engineering, Sensors and Communications, Siemens PLM Software, and Water Technologies. For more information, visit www.siemens.com/industryautomation.

This document contains statements related to our future business and financial performance and future events or developments involving Siemens that may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "looks forward to," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "will," "project" or words of similar meaning. We may also make forward-looking statements in other reports, in presentations, in material delivered to stockholders and in press releases. In addition, our representatives may from time to time make oral forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on the current expectations and certain assumptions of Siemens' management, and are, therefore, subject to certain risks and uncertainties. A variety of factors, many of which are beyond Siemens' control, affect Siemens' operations, performance, business strategy and results and could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Siemens to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or anticipated on the basis of historical trends. These factors include in particular, but are not limited to, the matters described in Item 3: Risk factors of our most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC, in the chapter "Risks" of our most recent annual report prepared in accordance with the German Commercial Code, and in the chapter "Report on risks and opportunities" of our most recent interim report.

Further information about risks and uncertainties affecting Siemens is included throughout our most recent annual, and interim reports as well as our most recent earnings release, which are available on the Siemens website, www.siemens.com, and throughout our most recent annual report on Form 20-F and in our other filings with the SEC, which are available on the Siemens website, www.siemens.com, and on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements of Siemens may vary materially from those described in the relevant forward-looking statement as being expected, anticipated, intended, planned, believed, sought, estimated or projected. Siemens neither intends, nor assumes any obligation, to update or revise these forward-looking statements in light of developments which differ from those anticipated.

Due to rounding, numbers presented throughout this and other documents may not add up precisely to the totals provided and percentages may not precisely reflect the absolute figures.

Die letzten 5 Focus-News des innovations-reports im Überblick:

Researchers from the University of Basel have reported a new method that allows the physical state of just a few atoms or molecules within a network to be controlled. It is based on the spontaneous self-organization of molecules into extensive networks with pores about one nanometer in size. In the journal ‘small’, the physicists reported on their investigations, which could be of particular importance for the development of new storage devices.

Around the world, researchers are attempting to shrink data storage devices to achieve as large a storage capacity in as small a space as possible. In almost...

A widely used diabetes medication combined with an antihypertensive drug specifically inhibits tumor growth – this was discovered by researchers from the University of Basel’s Biozentrum two years ago. In a follow-up study, recently published in “Cell Reports”, the scientists report that this drug cocktail induces cancer cell death by switching off their energy supply.

The widely used anti-diabetes drug metformin not only reduces blood sugar but also has an anti-cancer effect. However, the metformin dose commonly used in the...

A research team from the University of Zurich has developed a new drone that can retract its propeller arms in flight and make itself small to fit through narrow gaps and holes. This is particularly useful when searching for victims of natural disasters.

Inspecting a damaged building after an earthquake or during a fire is exactly the kind of job that human rescuers would like drones to do for them. A flying...